Pages

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Freezer Cooking (Part I)

Hey everyone! I have good news. Last friday my summer semester at school officially ended. I have two weeks of break and I have many things planned to do while I am off.

I spent Sunday hanging out with my wonderful friend Jessica in Atlanta. We hiked the trails at Chattahoochee Recreational Park, visited an international market and ate some wonderful Greek and Indian food. Yummy!

Yesterday, I hung out with my Mom and 5 of my younger siblings on the lake. We had a great day of swimming, laying out in the sun, playing card games and eating lots of good food. I have enjoyed getting some time to relax with good company and good food.

Now for my upcoming plans....

Freezer Cooking!

I am jumping on the freezer cooking bandwagon. Growing up, my Mom would do freezer cooking every year, making over 200 meals at one time. I have learned from the best and I figured it was high time I started doing it myself.

I am not making 200 meals, but I do have plans to try to get 40-50 meals in the freezer this time. I started planning last week. I compiled and multiplied recipes, wrote up a massive shopping list, and organized my kitchen (I will write another post on that later).

Today was shopping day.

This is the view from the back of my kitchen table. Some of the items on this table include 30 lbs. of dried beans, 5 lbs. of brown rice, over 100 assorted chilies and peppers, and 8 heads of broccoli.

Here is the view from the front. I did most of my shopping at the Super-H in Atlanta. It is the closest international market and has great prices on everything from produce and spices to rice noodles and dried beans.

I also went to Costco and some of the items I purchased included 30 lbs. of onions, 5 lbs. of organic sugar (for my kefir), 10 lbs. of carrots and 5 big cans of tomatoes.

I was too tired to start cooking today. But I did manage to get some beans soaking to cook tomorrow.

Here is the list of meals I am making.

Chili

White Chicken Chili

Pot pie filling to serve over rice

Coconut Curry Soup

Enchiladas

Chicken, broccoli and brown rice casserole

Bolognese Sauce

I am also making smaller portions of cooked meat, cooked beans, and cooked brown rice to pull out for easy meals this fall.

So, there you have it. I am looking forward to cooking and also to having lots of ready-made meals in the freezer for the busy days of fall. I will post again soon with more pictures.